ipad screenshot 1-2-1

Sir David Attenborough’s Story of Life

by with No Comment Apps

One of the most enjoyable educational apps I’ve yet experienced :

Join broadcast legend Sir David Attenborough to explore more than 1000 of the greatest wildlife moments ever filmed.

  • Explore the most comprehensive collection of Sir David’s work ever released online.
  • Includes six decades of highlights from more than 40 landmark BBC programmes, including Planet Earth, Blue Planet, The Life of Mammals, Africa and others.
  • Watch unique collections of films curated by Sir David and others.
  • Create and save your own collections and share them with friends and family.
  • Hunt for hidden films featuring Sir David, recorded exclusively for the app.
  • Explore extraordinary sequences of animals and plants, from iconic large species to rarely seen enigmatic creatures. See them hunt, mate, eat, travel and communicate in their natural habitats; ranging from the high mountains to the deepest oceans, across deserts, forests and the polar ice caps.
  • Watch lions, polar bears, whales, sharks, eagles and giant lizards and many more.

Available at no charge as a universal app for iOS, and on Android, this has barely been off the family iPad since we downloaded it.

Tip of the hat to Vowe.

Circle logo

Circle: The Local Network

by with One Comment Apps

Circle logoCircle is the mobile app that’s in the know, anywhere you go. Circle keeps you up to speed by adapting to your location and letting you view what’s happening near you, now.

Our goal is to build on the lessons learned from traditional social networks to make a new kind of community: positive, local and useful, wherever you are.

Each month, more than a million people are joining Circle for real-time information and conversation about nearby crime, traffic, natural disasters – as well as places to go and things to do.

Lost dogs. Best fishing spots. Free kids events. Closed roads. Flash mobs. Amazing, scary, exciting and crazy are happening everywhere. The Circle community is there to help you navigate your world.

And we have some help. Circle is funded by Andreessen Horowitz, Ashton Kutcher, Ron Conway, David Sacks and other top investors. Headquartered in Palo Alto, the company was founded by CEO Evan Reas with the goal of truly connecting the mobile web to the real world.

Circle has truly beautiful design, a clever focus on local news and events, apps for Android and iOS, and excellent integration with existing networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Circle screenshot Circle screenshot Circle screenshot

As ever, the key question is whether your friends and peers are on the network – that’s what makes it sticky.  Right now, that’s not the case, and there’s precious little being added within 50km of my location – I’m sure it would be different in San Francisco, NYC or even London.

However, I’m hopeful that this will change – I like Circle and would like it to succeed.

IBM Connections Logo

New release of IBM Connections app for iOS and Android now available

by with 6 Comments IBM Connections

IBM Connections LogoVersion 4.1.0 of the IBM Connections app is now available from the Apple App Store and Google Play, including the following enhancements:

  • Support for Community Files, Forums, and Bookmarks on SmartCloud
  • @mentions for status updates (requires Connections server 4.5 and above)
  • Target status updates to individual profiles or a community
  • Support liking for status update comments (requires Connection server 4.0 CR2 and above)
  • Single tap to view a file
  • File usability enhancements for quick access to common actions
  • Access file downloads from the launcher
  • View Forum attachments
  • Show most recently viewed Communities
  • Enhanced viewing for Community description
  • Enhancements to the URL for launching the app
  • Performance and stability improvements

For me personally, the most important of these is the @mentions in status updates, which really does open up IBM Connections to be used as an internal Twitter-style tool.  @Mentions are key in encouraging interaction via the stream, and having them available via the app makes them vastly more accessible and powerful.

The other enhancement I’d pick out is ‘Enhanced viewing for Community description’ – we are using the community overview for all kinds of enhancements to communities (probably way beyond IBM’s expectations when they developed the feature), such as dynamic image maps, embedded video carousels and much more.  I haven’t tested the new app release yet, but I’m hoping that this will improve the integrity of these overviews via mobile devices.

Go get it now! (iOS | Android)

[Also, the Blackberry app was updated recently, though to an older release – 3.4.2)

Social Business Online for iPhone

IBM ‘Social Business Online’ app now available

by with No Comment Events

IBM Connect is just around the corner (I travel on Friday, so better crack on with the packing!), and thoughts turn to sessions, schedules and social events.

After a few false starts this year, IBM has settled on the Social Business Online tool as the official means to view sessions, create a personal schedule and network with other attendees.  A combination of IBM Connections, Sametime and Domino/XPages platforms, it can be reached via the web, mobile browser or using the recently released native app for iOS (iPhone and iPad):

Social Business Online for iPhone Social Business Online for iPad

or Android:

IBM Social Business Online Android IBM Social Business Online Android

I’m fairly impressed with Social Business Online, and would advise all attendees to at least check in once or twice to see the latest content.  I do see this as the last year for this particular site though – I had hoped that the days of the ‘for one week only’ social sites were over.

There is also an exciting community-provided alternative from Mat Newman, Turtle Partnership and others ‘The totally unofficial, totally unsupported IBM Connect 2013 session database‘ (it does need a snappy acronym though!). This is available as a Notes database, mobile UI and now as a native iOS app too.

Either way, there is no excuse for not being properly prepared for IBM Connect.  My advice is to create a detailed schedule of sessions you plan to attend, plus a list of backup sessions should you be running late, the room is full or your first choice is not as engaging as you hoped it would be.